Campus Session - 08/02/2011

Hi all.


I thought I'd best get this first entry on the go, whilst everything from the session is still fresh in my head!
This session was my first trip to the campus, I regret to admit, but I'm going to try and make it to every session for this module, as I have already felt the benefit after just one session - last module, I felt I was consantly trying to play catch-up, and I could not fully engage in discussions on blogs, as I wasn't entirely sure what everyone was talking about!


I'm going to start off by briefly talking about the tasks of the day -


1. Knowledge


We were asked individually to consider what knowledge we needed, to become successful in our chosen careers. We then were put into groups, relevant to our professions; I was put in a group with 3 fellow performers. We collaborated our lists, and ended up with a big list along these lines:


- Castability (vocally, visually and physically)
- Talents (skills and limits)
- Different learning techniques
- Taking care of yourself
- Social Communication
- Intrapersonal skills
- Web based tools
- Preparation
- Presentation, and awareness of the impression you give people
- Knowing your own mind
- Audition Technique and etiquette
- The ability to critique yourself efficiently


Adesola looked at our list, containing predominantly professional knowledge, and threw in the idea of less specific knowledge. Things such as budgeting, time management and general survival, which are all used by 'ordinary people' and aren't just specific to performers.


We were then asked, in our groups, to present our lists as a graphical representation. As we trie to categorise our list, we noticed a lot of overlaps. I considered using a Venn diagram, to demonstrate the overlap between general and professional knowledge, as we established that things such as time management, social communication and preparation are important in general day-to-day life, as well as in our profession.


However, we then spotted that, for example, web based tools are a sub-category under social communications, so we decided to present our information in the form of a flow chart, which ended up more like a mind map of all the links, using main headings and sub-categories. This, and the other presentations can be found on Rosemary's blog.

<<<<< This is the mind map my group came up with.

Once we had presented it to the rest of the group, Jo came up with an interesting visual interpretation of this idea - she suggested portraying this like a map of the London Underground, each point being the stations and the categories being the lines. I really liked this idea, so I attempted it when I got home. The hand-drawn copy I have done is really clear, as I have been able to incorporate colour into it, which I enjoy using in exercises such as this, and revision. The computerised version is still a work in progress, but I will post it up once it's done, as I feel it really does represent the pathways of knowledge and the overlaps well.

2. The 'Big Question'


After a short break, we were asked what our 'Big Question' was. Once we'd established our own questions, we shared with the rest of the group. There were questions such as "Why are Musical Theatre actors taken less seriously than 'straight' actors?", "How does music influence children?" and my personal favourite, "What is next?". My question related to what is next for me, while I am still recovering from my ankle injury. We then took our questions and explored a selection of sub-questions, which we may then use during our inquiry.


3. What are  the opportunities and challenges of being an 'insider' in your profession?


My group, a selection of performers and people involved in visual and Arts management, found that a lot of the challenges faced by performers could be used to the advantage of those on the 'other side', for example age and experience. Experience may seem important; however, especially in this economic climate, experienced dancers will be less willing to work on a voluntary basis or for lower pay  than they are used to, whereas fresh graduates will be prepared to do pretty much anything, as cliche as it sounds, to get a job. Below is a table summarising our findings.

Challenges	Opportunities
Stereotyping – stunts growth	Stereotyping – can mean you have a job for life
Supply of graduates every year	I am a graduate right now
Knowledge can hold you back	Experience and knowledge
Age changes castability	Age – depends what directors are looking for
Staying current
Making contacts
Maintenance (staying at the top)

When I looked at blogs, such as Mark's, I saw a different approach to this task, looking at opportunities and challenged from a different angle, more specific to the inquiry. Below is a table summary of his thoughts which I found I could relate to.

Opportunities	Challenges
You are in the perfect position to understand problem areas that need to be fixed	You may be too involved, and therefore overlook basic/obvious elements of the inquiry
You have a passion and an interest for the inquiry	You may have preconceptions and may have a desired outcome, which could lead you to manipulate the results to suit your needs/only focus your attentions on information that supports your own preconceptions.
You would be directly affected by the inquiry, and so in a position to reap the benefits	Difficulties may arise if you have a strong emotional attachment to the inquiry, or to a person affected by the inquiry. This could raise ethical issues.

4. Specialist Interests Groups (SIGs)


Our final task of the day was to discuss how best to go about setting up SIGs, as aids in our inquiry. We considered questions such as:


- How many SIGs should we join?
- How do we decide on membership? (exclusivity, numbers, etc)
- What do we expect of the SIG members?
- What responsibilities should I have, as a member of a SIG?
- What technologies should we use?


My group came up with the following suggestions:


- We should join around 3 SIGs, so we can give them all a decent amount of attention - don't spread ourselves too thinly!
- The possibility of each of us BAPP students being able to invite two guests of their own, that will have a beneficial contribution to the SIG.
- The members should be expected to contribute to discussions appropriately, and try to check up on, and have an input in, the SIG at least once a fortnight.
- Suitable technologies could include the Blogs, Facebook or Twitter.


When the groups came together, we were all pretty much on a similar wavelength, and steps have since been taken to set up a SIG on Facebook. The creator of each thread will be responsible for Blogging an overview of the discussions on the particular thread, and this main group will eventually split off into more specific SIGs. The address for the Facebook is >>>>> hBA-Professional-Practice-Arts-Middlesex-University, for those of you who haven't joined it yet!